Dave Hartley has just released his second album as Nightlands, the self-described "baroque bedroom pop" project that is the Philadelphia musician and songwriter's chief creative outlet when he's not playing bass in The War On Drugs. It's called Oak Island, and it's out on Secretly Canadian

Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic

Posted:
Thursday, January 24, 2013, 4:10 PM

Dave Hartley has just released his second album as Nightlands, the self-described "baroque bedroom pop" project that is the Philadelphia musician and songwriter's chief creative outlet when he's not playing bass in The War On Drugs. It's called Oak Island, and it's out on Secretly Canadian. My interview with him is in today's Inquirer and here.

Hartley is a man of many hats. Besides singing in the Silver Ages and writing a basketball column for the WXPN music blog The Key called Top Of The Key, he's also an amateur photographer. This month, after Spin magazine named both Nightlands and Philadelphia power trio Purling Hiss as among the five artists to watch for January, Harltey returned the favor by providing the Spin web site with a 25 picture photo gallery that works as a love letter of sorts to Fishtown, where the Maryland native has lived for the past seven years. Check that out here.

On Monday, I went to a Sixers game Hartley and his War on Drugs band mate Adam Granduciel, in part to watch Matt Bonner, the San Antonio Spurs three-point shooting specialist who is the inspiration for the Hartley founded online campaign #LetBonnerShoot. the Eva Longria-endorsed movement's intention is to get the unfrashionable power forward into this year's NBA All-Star Weekend three-point shooting contest.

While Nick Young and Spencer Hawes were leading an improbably second half charge against the Spurs that predictably proved futile, Hartley talked about how much he appreciates the artistic ferment in Fishtown, where, as he put it, "the symbiotic element of it is pretty insane."

"The other day I went to the Rocket Cat," he said, talking about the cafe on the corner of Norris and Frankford. "And I ran into that girl Sarah Everton from that band Bleeding Rainbow, who I really like. We were talking about Fleetwood Mac, and the song "For Everyone" on Tusk. Which is a song we cover live, and I told her I ws actually working on a recording of it, and she should come over and play drums on it. Which she did. So just by getting an Americano at the Rocket Cat I have a really interesting collaboration with this girl over a shared loved of this song. Things like that."

That's Hartley in silver-face paint in the video for "I Fell In Love With A Feeling," the David Kessler-directed clip for the first single from Oak Island. Show details for the Kung Fu Necktie are here.